Reposted in Shorter Form from Original Post on Thursday
♥ ADORE DELANO/DANNY NORIEGA - RuPaul's Drag Race and American Idol 🏳️🌈
Daniel Noriega grew up east of Los Angeles in Azusa, CA and while he was in elementary school he came out at 12 years old, the same time that he began to write music as a solace to where he grew up in a largely Hispanic community. As someone who loved to sing and dance and who had a fandom for Britney and Chris Brown, Danny represents one of the dozens of success stories of those who have achieved greater fame because of their exposure on American Idol, and he auditioned twice: in 2007, the then 18-year-old went on Season 6 (Jordin Sparks' season), where he sang in front of the iconic trio of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul & Simon Cowell, and made it to Round 2 in Hollywood but got cut. But he earned a second chance the following year on Season 7, where as the last person to audition in front of the originals down in San Diego, Danny performed Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" and his flamboyant & lively persona struck a chord with them.
Him getting another chance to impress Randy, Paula & Simon was more than good enough for Danny to advance again to Tinseltown, but not before his clapback at Simon became viral and landed him on E!'s The Soup. This time, he cleared the second hurdle to the shortlist of fifty singers who made to the last day of Hollywood Week, and the judges gave him a ticket to Phase 3 and performing under the bright lights of the small stage before the live shows. He performed Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock," among others, to survive the following two weeks of the semifinal section of each Idol season, before making it to the Top 16 - and a weak performance of an 80's song proved to be the difference in him placing in Week 3's bottom two, missing a spot of joining winner David Cook, runner-up David Archleta and the rest of that year's Top 12. But as a consolation prize, he appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show and performed on Rosie O'Donnell's cruise ship.
For someone who lived his life as a girl for a time in school, who identifies today as non-binary and who first performed in drag at a 2011 contest, ultimately the chance came for Adore to audition for RuPaul's Drag Race. But as it was with Idol, it was only on the second try did she finally break through: in 2014 - three years after she made her choice to perform in drag permanent, Adore made it onto Season 6 of Drag Race. As he wrote on Yahoo in 2016, "...it was a liberating experience. When they put the camera on me, I could say whatever the f___ I wanted. They let me be silly and fun and tell my story. The experience was way more positive, uplifting, and encouraging than Idol had been."
In coining a new signature phrase "TMTH" - an acronym for "too much to handle," Adore had a slow start to her stint on RPDR where the judges called her a sloppy queen, but ultimately got it together over the course of the season. Her winning two straight challenges helped Adore make it to the season's final two, eventually finishing runner-up to friend Bianca Del Rio, and then released new music afterwards with a Top 5 dance/electronic album which also reached the top 60 on Billboard. She then returned for Drag Race's second All-Stars season in 2016, but after getting criticism from judges, Adore became the first contestant on either the regular or spinoff show to quit... which was then followed by legal issues in taking her former management firm to court over unpaid fees.
As a prelude to her coming onto Ex On The Beach, Adore joined MTV alum Karamo Brown of Queer Eye and one who auditioned on Idol himself years back, Todrick Hall, and a slew of other guest stars who made guest cameos on the music video of Taylor Swift's LGBT anthem, "You Need to Calm Down." She had doubts over whether to make the jump to MTV, but in addition to having watched the show regularly (both US & UK) Adore hopes to continue the AYTO 8 cast's inspirational message to both kids and the LGBT community to be themselves, regardless of gender or sexuality.
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The fourth overall season of Temptation Island earlier this year saw the four couples -- Javen Butler & Shari Ligons from the Bay Area, Karl Collins & Nicole Tutewohl of Chicago, John Thurmond & Kady Krambeer of Fort Worth, TX, and Evan Smith & Kaci Campbell from L.A. -- all test those testy waters in Hawaii. As you would suspect for any reality dating show, plenty of drama ensued with the four couples and twenty-six singles, and only Javen & Shari escaped unharmed in still being married. The three other couples who came to T.I. split up after failing their tests of love, and Evan (son of slain 20th Century Fox executive & UCLA basketball player Gavin Smith) eventually got engaged to D.C. area realtor Morgan Lolar.
Another of those who were among the singles who brought temptation to the four couples that came to our fiftieth state is the other non-MTV castmate with (as it was last season with Aubrey returning to where she began on Making the Band) ties to a now newly-expanded ViacomCBS having started her career on its highest-rated cable channel over a decade ago when she was a teenager. Allie DiMeco grew up a '90s baby in Connecticut as a descendant of six different nationalities, but had to adjust to real life early spending much of her childhood being raised by a widowed mom after her dad passed away when she was 3, and being born prematurely. But from age 5, Allie knew that her heart was in arts & entertainment, and it was at that tender age that she began acting & modeling.
As a girl who had a strong appetite for music playing six different instruments of the pop and classical type, Nickelodeon cast her on the channel's musical sitcom The Naked Brothers Band, starring real-life brothers Nat & Alex Wolff. The mocumentary series, which began with a movie-length pilot episode in 2005 and morphed into a TV show that ran for two years, parodied their real lives as sons of show creator & mom Polly Draper, who led a fictional teen pop rock group based in New York City - and Nat & Alex went on to be become an actual pop rock duo later in their careers. Allie portrayed the series' female lead as Nat's girlfriend Rosalina alongside the Wolffs' real-life friends and dad Michael who was musical director on The Arsenio Hall Show.
When she reemerged into the public spotlight more than a decade older, Allie was mindful of T.I.'s concept of not wanting to cause one couple to break up while looking for love herself... but given that the show is different this time she decided to dive in. Her bio read, "She is a fun-loving adventure-seeker who is looking to find someone to share her life with, and hopes one of these men is ready to leave their baggage behind and ride life's rollercoaster with her." There, she went on several dates with some of the men in the villa and who forged relationships with two others who'll ultimately show up as exes in a few more layers of clothing than you'd have in a tropical setting... and she also got to call out someone on Twitter, too.
As she wrote in a guest Playboy column, "At the age of 26, I can resentfully say I hate the way my generation dates. Swiping left and right has never been to my liking, and I used to wish there was a new way to date. However, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up in Hawaii, dating four confused boyfriends with hall passes. ... Despite all the reservations and nerves, when offered the opportunity to hang out with host Mark L. Walberg in a mansion in Hawaii, and a chance to find love, it is all well worth it … especially if one of the girlfriends finds you incredibly funny."
Allie appears at :07
♥ ♥ ♥
31-year-old Ryan Gallagher is the third of six children who spent most of his life in Grand Rapids, MI... but since he was in high school and being part of both his school and church choirs, music has been in his DNA. He took those hometown choir lessons to get, as he confessed in an interview, "...an easy A," but his voice teacher found something about him singing and that voice, that he was better than just a choir boy and recommended that Ryan take an audition for a big name artist.
There, he tried out to be a backup vocalist for Josh Groban on his 2005 tour after the success of his signature song "You Raise Me Up," and after being on stage with him performing in the background in front of 11,000 of his hometown fans that changed his life and kickstarted his musical odyssey. Next for him came perform for one of Idol's biggest alumni, Carrie Underwood on the Voices Tour with her and "The Las Vegas Diva," Lani Misalucha, plus another '90s icon Michael Bolton.
Then came national exposure in performing on Carrie's old show, Nashville Star and having his first single, "Gone For Good," picked up by radio stations owned by America's largest radio broadcaster, iHeartMedia. He even went overseas to the Philippines and performing on a TV show called I Love OPM, the Islands' definition for contemporary, Original Pinoy Music. Ryan has also performed shows in L.A., Vegas, Hawaii and other places around the Pacific, including Filipino icon Lea Salonga. And he's even brought his talents to Broadway in playing the lead character of a local production of the timeless classic The Addams Family.
Avid Idol fans know that being versatile in performing a different array of genres is essential for those who want to join Carrie, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson and other alumni who've ascended to stardom. In Ryan's case, his possesses a broad repertoire when he performs live in going from covering pop songs, to where his musical heart lies in classical ballads, jazz standards and country music. He appreciates being authentic when it comes to his music, and he says in his bio, "I was put on this earth to entertain and move hearts back to a simpler place, in a world filled with distraction and distance, what better way to bring people together than through music, REAL music!"
- I AM DC
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